... Gone Wild

All right, I know you’ve heard of those trashy DVDs sold on late night teevee called “Girls Gone Wild.”

Now, I present to you …


Atomic Power Plants … Gone Wild!



Talk about hype. This is the back cover of my current read, Lester Del Rey’s Nerves, first published as a short story in 1942 and expanded fourteen years later into a novel. I know Mr. Del Rey had little or nothing to do with what’s written here. Most authors don’t. It’s up to the publisher, specifically, the publisher’s marketing department.

But, man, is this one enthusiastic back cover. I mean, count ’em – six exclamation marks! That’s six!!!!!! There are seven statements, and 86 percent of them end in an exclamation point.

I also love that last quote, from “Book News”: “A real blood chiller with the immediacy of tomorrow’s headlines.” Maybe it’s me, but what’s the “immediacy” of something that’s going to happen, proverbially, “tomorrow”? “Today’s headlines” have “immediacy.” Tomorrow’s … eh, not so much.

Regardless, I’m halfway through it. It’s China Syndrome 35 years before there was the movie of the same name. So far I have mixed feelings, but we’ll see in two or three days. A well-written powerful punch of an ending can overcome a whole slew of literary sins. Review early next week, I’d expect.